Alternatives
by Cyberwolf
Summary: Another world, another life, and still some things never change.... But some do. An alternate universe fic.
1. Meet the Characters

**Chapter One: Meet The Characters**

Duo calmly slid his ID card through the device before him. He shifted his booted feet impatiently as the machine blinked twice and greeted him in a synthetic female voice. "Good morning Lieutenant Maxwell, please proceed."

"Hello, Duo!" A gloved hand patted him on the shoulder. At once, the American fifteen-year-old recognized the voice. "Hello, Zechs," he replied to his commanding officer and best friend, Zechs Marquise.

"How are you and Hilde doing?" Zechs asked, scratching his head, his long blond hair flowing loose and long down his back. Duo breathed in sharply, heart-shaped face pasted with an expression of dismay.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" he cried, walking away from the colonel. "Sure ya do! I saw you talking to her and then... smooch!" Zechs grinned as Duo spun around.

"That's not true!" he protested. "Oh, yeah it is... and I'm gonna be a gossip! HA!" Zechs proudly walked away from his best friend, who was staring at the wall, seemingly paralyzed with fear.

Duo pivoted on his heel and shook his fist at Zechs' departing figure. "Ooh, that guy!" he muttered to himself. A slow, evil grin which justified his nickname among the Specials forces-Shinigami- spread across his face. "A little birdie told me a VERY interesting story concerning a certain lieutenant Noin and a certain colonel..."

Zechs froze in his tracks down the hall. "You wouldn't dare. I'm the gossip, not you!" he cried. Duo smirked at him. "There's a first time for everything."

Zechs jogged up to him. "Hey, how'd you find out, anyway?" he demanded.

Duo grinned. "So, you mean it's true?" Zechs groaned as he realized he just confirmed the accusation. Duo continued, "Sorry, sir, a true gossip NEVER reveals his secrets!"

Zechs pounded his head against the wall in frustration, wondering how Duo had turned the tables on him yet again.

Duo turned as he entered the lift and called, "And Zechs, you should know better than to let a security expert have free rein in your room...even if she is your sister." The lift doors clicked shut.

Zechs stared in disbelief at the now-featureless wall as Duo's words sank into his brain. Finally: "RELENAAAAAA!"

****

The MS door popped open and its young pilot leapt down, landing with cat-like agility.

"Great work, Heero!" called Trowa down to his friend, who was commonly known as Heero Yuy. Word had leaked out that the pilot of the new special 'Gundam mobile suit' would be codenamed Heero Yuy. And since he was the best pilot in the Colonial forces... "Your test scores were off the chart...even for you!" Trowa continued.

Heero gave Trowa a nod. Removing his helmet, he looked up at his best friend and teased, "You mean like yours were earlier today?"

Trowa laughed. Though he was primarily known as an explosives expert, Trowa was the best pilot in the Colonial forces...after Heero, of course.

Those two were slated to be the pilots of the Gundams, which were Mobile Suits so far advanced over the earlier models that outside HQ they were the stuff of dreams. Doctors J and H were racing with their former counterparts, Doctors O and G who were now with the Specials, to complete the Gundams.

Ten minutes later, the boys were washed and dressed casually and heading to the mess hall. Heero glanced at the boy walking next to him out of the corner of his eye. Trowa was about two inches taller than Heero's own five-foot-three, with brown hair lighter than Heero's dark crown. One of his dark green eyes was always hidden beneath a curtain of hair. That was his distinguishing feature. Heero's was a red bandanna that was supposed to keep his extremely spiky hair out of his Prussian blue eyes but didn't. (think Ryu from SF)

Trowa was Heero's best friend and a real cool guy to have around, but he never talked much about his past. Heero knew Trowa had been raised in the circus, explaining his phenomenal acrobatic ability and empathy for animals among other talents, but some dark event had led to his fleeing into the Colonial rebel forces.

Heero didn't know if Trowa was an orphan or had his parents alive, how many siblings he had, when his birthday was, where'd he'd been born... Trowa had once mentioned that he'd abandoned his real name and adopted the one of a man he'd been forced to kill, but other than that he was very reluctant to talk about his past.

Heero knew what Trowa meant. He himself hated talking about his past; not that it mattered, since almost everyone in the Rebel forces knew his story:

For most of his life, he'd been known as AJ-Adian, Jr.- and he lived up to it. He was the spitting image of his father, the assassin-turned-most-brilliant-general-in-the-Federation Adian Lowe. He was raised to be his spitting image, too. He could move as noiselessly as a shadow if he wanted, shoot a coin off a table without singeing the finish from a hundred paces, take a knife in the gut and not wince-just like his father trained him to. He had an assassin's skills but could salute and march and obey orders as well as any parade-show soldier.

He had to. If he slipped up, his father would have beaten him within an inch of his life; Heero had the scars to prove it. He hated his life; he hated the Earth Federation. It was no wonder that he'd run away and enlisted in the Colonial forces just as soon as he could: about two years ago.

His reputation as a 'perfect soldier' had quickly spread. No one questioned his loyalty, so great and seething was his hatred of his father and the other higher-ups in the Federation who'd made him what he was.

When Trowa had enlisted five months after Heero's arrival, the Colony Command quickly took notice of his skills and talents. Before long, the two were assigned each other as partners, since they both had reputations of thorough, swift efficiency. Any mission they were assigned, they completed. No questions asked.

And sure enough, the two of them had become fast friends. They'd saved each other so many times, been in so many life-and-death situations where surviving meant trusting the other totally, that a bond between the two had sprung up, binding them closer than brothers.

Heero was jolted out of his thoughts when he walked right past the door to the mess hall and Trowa called back to him: "Hey Heero! What's with you? The door's this way!" Heero spun around and grinned sheepishly. Laughing, the two boys entered the big room together.

****

Relena Marquise ran her fingers through her dark blond hair and blew the feathery bangs out of her sea-blue eyes. She squinted at the computer screen for a few more seconds, then quickly executed several quick keystrokes. With an obliging beep, the computer signaled that the code was broken.

"Ha!" Relena crowed, spinning her chair around to face her friends. "What's my time, then, Duo?"

Duo glanced at his black stopwatch. "Twenty minutes and eighteen point two seconds," he recited, grinning sheepishly at the girls.

Relena hooted in triumph. "Ha, less than twenty one minutes! So, oniisan, I thought this was an 'unbreakable' Specials code?" she taunted, smirking at her brother.

Relena Marquise was, despite her young age, one of the best security experts in the field. Or as Relena put it, 'an ANTI-security expert'. She had a knack for figuring out the weaknesses in any security system, and for breaking into any 'secure' computers to gain the blueprints for aforementioned systems.

Zechs, Duo and Hilde were all talented MS pilots, the best in the Specials forces. Zechs and Duo especially had 'the touch'; they were so good, they were expected to be the pilots for the new 'Gundam' mobile suits. Noin was a good MS pilot, too, but she used her talents to teach.

Anyway, to return to the story, Zechs had bet that his younger sister couldn't break the codes on the heavily encrypted disk containing the plans for the new Gundam suits-at least without tearing her hair out. Duo had trusted his superior's judgment so much he'd bet his girlfriend twenty credits that Relena WOULDN'T be able to break the code. Hilde had accepted the bet at once, especially since Relena was her best friend and she'd stick up like anything for her.

"Pay up, Duo! You lost," exulted Hilde. Duo grimaced and reached into his pocket, withdrawing a crumpled handful of credit notes.

Relena smirked one last time at her head-scratching brother and turned her attention to the diagrams spinning on her screen. "Whoa," she breathed. "These are the plans?" She whistled softly while her friends crowded around and looked at the screen. Duo predicted, "Those suits are going to be majorly..."

***

"AWESOME!" yelled Trowa, looking up at his new Gundam. Thickly armored and powerful looking, the orange-red-and-white Gundam had a vast arsenal of guns, missile launchers and gatling guns, a powerful engine and two hidden knives made of Gundanium alloy. "That is Heavyarms," Dr. O told Trowa, justifiably proud of his creation.

Heero was busy listening to Dr. J as he lectured the young pilot on his Gundam's statistics. "Wing Zero is extremely versatile; it fights well in the air or land. It has a jet fighter mode, can go at high speeds and is agile and maneuverable. Its main weapons are a beam saber and a beam cannon, plus some machine guns..." Heero gradually tuned Dr. J out.

His eyes kept glancing at the MS, sleek and shining white. It stood like a divine warrior from the heavens, its empty eyes almost glowing.

****

Duo grinned as Hilde and Relena praised the plans. "You know, girls, they're only plans..." said Zechs. The two girls ignored him because of their high pitched 'ooh's' and 'aah's'.

Duo gave his bud a slap on the back. "They're bee-yoo-tiful. I especially like mine." His face gleamed with delight as the plans for Deathscythe appeared.

"You're going to pilot that thing? It's kinda...scary," Hilde said, staring at the Gundam, which looked a little like the Grim Reaper.

"It's cool, Hilde! Can you not see its essence?"

Hilde looked blank. "Huh?"

Duo clarified: "It rules!"

"Uh... where's mine?" Zechs inquired as he squirmed to get a look at the Gundam. Relena glanced at her brother and grinned. "This is your Gundam, Zechs."

The screen switched to an image of a tall white Mobile Suit, with a crest on its gray and white head resembling the helmet of an ancient Roman gladiator.

"Hey, hey, hey! I was looking at MY Gundam!" protested Duo.

Zechs stared at the computer screen, trying to memorize every feature of the white Gundam. "I'm piloting...that?" he said, glancing at his teammates one by one. Relena nodded with a proud smile on her face, Hilde made a thumbs-up sign and Duo... Duo glanced at the computer screen and cried, "Hurrah! We're really gonna kick some rebel ass!"

Relena scrolled down some more...then started giggling. "What's so funny?" asked Zechs. Relena, unable to speak through her laughs, pointed to where the Gundam's name was: Tallgeese.

"TALLGEESE?!" roared Zechs, outraged. "What kind of a name is _Tallgeese_? Does it _LOOK_ like a TALLGEESE to you? It doesn't even resemble a fowl in any way, shape or size!"

Duo and Hilde joined in Relena's laughter. "I'm glad my Gundam's name's cool!" gloated Duo. Zechs sulked.

Zechs let Duo see his Gundam one last time before they had to log off in order not to be late for morning reveille.

*****

Duo and Zechs were escorted to their MS's two days after the incident. Duo stared at his Gundam and smiled proudly. The scientist beside him pushed up his glasses and calmly read the paper he was holding. "Gundam Deathscythe; unable to be seen on radar, weapon is thermal scythe. Also has a drill-like projectile that can be shot at opponents one at a time. Made out of Gundanium alloy." The scientist stopped to let Duo drool and rant on about how beautiful his Gundam was.

Zechs, on the other hand, was not so pleased with his Gundam. "Tallgeese..." he muttered under his breath. "Excuse me?" Doctor O asked the platinum-blond man beside him. "Nothing, just get on with the report," Zechs said flatly. The scientist held the clipboard in front of him, "Gundam Tallgeese, fast and powerful, it has a weapon called the Mega Cannon, and a beam saber similar to Duo's scythe."

"Pretty original, eh?" Zechs commented. The scientist cleared his throat and continued, "Made out of titanium alloy."

Although he didn't like his Gundam's name, he was still impressed by the white MS standing in front of him. In spite of his bad mood he said, "Hello, Tallgeese." And he reached up and patted the Mobile Suit.


	2. First Blood

**Chapter Two: First Blood**

KA-BOOOOOOM! The green-brown Aries suit exploded as Heavyarms' missiles found their mark. Chest heaving with his deep, shuddery breaths, Trowa Barton sat up straighter in the cockpit and scanned his sensors. He picked up Heero's Wing Zero on his screen just in time to watch a beam saber impale another Aries.

"That's the last of 'em," Trowa told Heero on the comm. "Mission accomplished." Heero grinned at Trowa's image on his commscreen. Jerking his thumb in the general direction of the base, he offered, "Want to race?"

Trowa, used to accepting any challenge that came his way, blurted out, "Sure thing!" He realized his mistake and ground the heel of his palm against his forehead, as Heero's grin grew even wider. 

"Ja ne!" Heero said cheerfully. Trowa watched sullenly as Wing Zero transformed into a jet and shot away to the base, probably breaking the sound barrier. Then he lifted his shoulders in a shrug (Heavyarms mimics his movement, too! =) and began to trudge back to base. 

He arrived in around an hour. As he hopped down from his mecha and let the maintenance people bundle Heavyarms off, he cast his green eyes about for his best friend. He soon spotted Heero's red bandanna blazing against his dark hair and jogged up to him. 

"Hey Heero!" he yelled. "Sorry I'm so late, but we can't all have disgustingly fast Gundams..." Trowa's friendly banter trailed off as he saw the serious expression on Heero's face. Trowa grabbed his arm and demanded, "What's the matter, Heero?"

In a terse voice, Heero quickly explained: "When I arrived, I decided to fool around with my computer a bit. An item on the news server caught my eye, then I started to find connected articles...followed the trail all the way to a Federation Class Blue database." Trowa was a bit startled. He knew Heero was a good hacker, but a _CLASS BLUE_ computer system? 

Heero continued: "The item was about the shipment of Gundanium alloy. The Federation has their Gundams completed, too. The Specials pilots chosen have been using their Gundams for two weeks already and giving our people a beating."

Trowa breathed in sharply in dismay. He walked along the corridor in thoughtful silence. He glanced sidelong at Heero's face. "I know that look." He smiled in grim anticipation. "So, when're we going to meet them?" 

Heero returned the smile. "Soon, buddy. Very soon."

*****

"Die, rebel scum! MwaHAHAHAHAHAhaaa!" cackled Duo insanely as his thermal scythe ripped through the Rebel MS. Off to one side, fighting a squad of MS in Tallgeese-and winning- Zechs asked, "Duo, HOW do you laugh like that?"

Hilde, flying back-up and not really doing anything since the two Gundams were utterly annihilating their enemies, said boredly, "He watched a Star Wars marathon last night and he's been practicing the laugh of Ayeka from Tenchi Muyo. That answer your question, Zechs?"

Zechs sweatdropped. "I _DO NOT_ need to know more, I _DO NOT_ need to think about it..." he chanted to himself.

An image blinked on in his commscreen. It was a rebel pilot, who looked straight into Zechs' eyes and proclaimed, "I am going to kill you. For the freedom of my home." 

His voice didn't ring stridently and dramatically, nor was his face twisted in the expression of righteous anger that Zechs had come to expect when dealing with announcements like this; no, it was completely unimpressive and forgettable, considering the way he said it. He might as well have said, "I'm a Mac user."

Zechs killed him, of course. And in that same, utterly boring tone of voice, the rebel said: "You killed me. But someone very much like me is going to come along, and he'll be all the things I'm not. He'll defeat you, for the freedom of my home. He'll be..." 

And the man, still preternaturally serious but calm, was enveloped in a raging fireball. And Zechs cast his words out of his memory.

"Oi, Zechs!" Duo's face popped up on screen just where the boring rebel had been. "That's the last one!" he reported. "Can we go home now?"

As ranking officer, Zechs had to be the one to order the mission's objectives finished and allow them to return to base. He was just about to do so when...

"Colonel!" yelled Hilde. "Two mobile suits coming this way...fast! They're configured different from an Aries or a Taurus..." her voice trailed off. "Oh no... they're like..." 

"_WHAT_ are they like?" demanded Zechs. Hilde didn't need to answer, for at that moment the Mobile Suits arrived.

A large red-white-and-blue jet, built rather like a mechanical eagle, swooped out from the blue noonday sky. Its 'talons' were clenched around a large, heavily armored mecha, who was dropped right in the middle of the battlefield.

It landed, creating a small crater. The eagle pulled up into the sky and dove down again, rapidly reconfiguring so a mecha with a longer-limbed build than its counterpart landed next to the first one. 

"Run a scan!" Zechs snapped to both his subordinates.

"Running, sir," Hilde replied. "Gundanium alloy; bears a striking resemblance to Dr. H and Dr. I's blueprints..."

Zechs sucked in his breath. The other Gundams! Here for the duel that Zechs had always known would come, ever since he received his Tallgeese...but which he tried to avoid thinking about.

An image flickered on in the corner of Zechs' screen. A boy with a red bandanna around his spiky brown hair stared at Zechs. After a moment of pregnant silence, the boy spoke. "Zechs Marquise, colonel in the Specials forces. I should have guessed they'd pick you. So then..." He turned his head slightly to one side. "You must be Lieutenant Duo Maxwell piloting the other Gundam." 

Zechs could imagine Duo's surprised expression on the unnamed boy's screen. How had he identified them with just a quick glance at their faces?

More disturbingly, why couldn't he identify HIM? A pilot of high enough caliber to be entrusted a Gundam should have shown up in the Intelligence files somewhere, but Zechs couldn't remember that face. And Zechs had a photographic memory, as did Duo.

He keyed a private link to his second-in-command. "Duo! Have you seen that face before?" 

Duo shook his head in the negative. "Nah-uh. And where's the pilot of the other one? This image is linked back to the white-and-blue Gundam."

Another image blinked on in Zechs' screen. Now there were three images filling Zechs' commscreen: Duo and the unnamed boys. 

The newest one had a pale, sharp-featured face, with light brown hair obscuring one dark green eye. "You can call me Trowa Barton," offered the boy. A smirk curved his mouth. "Well, while you're still alive to call anyone anything."

Duo bristled angrily. "Wanna back that up, tough guy?" he yelled at Trowa. Trowa shot back: "Anytime, braid-boy!" The two Gundams, black and orange, started to move into combat position, trading insults and threats at a furious rate.

The other boy stared unblinkingly at Zechs. "Well, I guess that leaves us to fight."

"Wait!" said Zechs. "What's your name? I'm not going to fight someone whose name I don't know." The boy's lips twitched, just slightly. Zechs had the feeling that was as close to a smile as he would probably get.

"My assigned codename is Heero Yuy," the boy told him. Zechs's sea blue eyes narrowed as he began to move his Gundam. He didn't miss the significance of the name, and he was sure the boy knew it.

*******

Duo jerked the joystick forward to make the Gundam Deathscythe slide to the right, out of the way of the speeding missiles. "That all you can do, spiky?" Duo taunted the colonial pilot.

"Watch out for the bullets, loud mouth!" Trowa snapped as his breastplate opened to reveal several gattling guns. "Maybe this will shut you up!" He loosed a barrage of missiles and bullets. 

"YAAAH!" yelled Duo. Only his quick reflexes saved him. Gulping in some oxygen, he turned wide eyes onto the orange Gundam that had nearly roasted Deathscythe. He noticed that its gattling gun had run out of ammo.

The orange Gundam threw the guns away, revealing a knife that could withstand the thermal blades of the other Gundams. It charged at Duo. Duo jerked his joysticks to one side, causing Trowa to miss giving the killer blow. 

Trowa could only watch as Shinigami's brilliant green scythe sprang up to claim its victim.

****

Heero had never fought a person who was so good a pilot. Zechs Marquise was awesome as he attacked the younger Gundam pilot, who had barely dodged Tallgeese's thermal blade. 

Under the layer of titanium alloy which was Tallgeese, Zechs grinned. 'This will be a real good fight...' he thought as he charged for his Rebel counterpart. Wing Zero activated its jets and vaulted over the white Gundam charging at it. 

Wing Zero pulled out its thermal blade and held it before its abdomen part defensively. As soon as Zechs saw this, he stopped his charging procedure and put on an attacking stance. His jet boosters softened their noise, a signal that they were being set on low power. 

Now it was a sudden death situation. Equal odds, no holds barred. Just the way Heero liked it.

***

Trowa sprang out of the way just in time to see the scythe brush against his Gundam's arm. It tore open a gash that sparked angrily. 

"URGH! You'll pay for that!" Trowa cried as he fired more rounds of bullets from his chest plate. Duo grinned as he easily dodged the bullets, which were shot from Heavyarms' guns.

Duo spoke to the former circus star. "Ready to die?" Deathscythe propelled itself towards the other Gundam who was again firing rounds of bullets at the dodging Deathscythe.

Duo smirked, he knew that this procedure would tire the other pilot down. Insulting and taunting had their effects in pilots who didn't know how to control their anger and pride. It didn't work with Zechs because of his many mock battles with Duo. But...

'This guy has yet to learn how to defeat Duo Maxwell...' he thought as he swung his scythe towards the vulnerable portion of Heavyarms' humanoid figure-its head.

***

Heero grunted as the shock of blocking a fierce blow from the thermal blade reached him. Wing Zero's engines roared like a jungle cat as they propelled its user above the white behemoth beneath.

He tapped a few keys on the panels. "Wanna play rough, eh?" he said to himself, trying to boost his confidence by talking tough, even if he was the only one who heard it. Hey, wasn't talking to yourself one of the first signs of insanity?

Wing Zero stabbed its thermal blade forward, but was blocked by a shrewd parry from Zechs. The younger pilot was getting frustrated, yet intrigued; it was rare that he should encounter a person whom he could really challenge. This would be one hell of a fight; one to remember, to put it mildly. But Heero still had a lot of options. After all, sudden death was his element.

From his memory, Zechs called up the features of this obviously experienced pilot that he was facing. He had looked as young as his buddy, Duo. Maybe he was even younger, and yet his skill was astounding. Like Heero, he had never fought someone who could square off toe-to-toe with him. Zechs had no idea of what this boy was capable of...

Their thermal blades clashed against each other, hissing and causing sparks. The battle, like a dance of two steel gods, raged for an indeterminable amount of time... until Heero saw something out of the corner of his eye. 

"What the hell?!" He glanced to his side to see Trowa being beaten by the partner of his enemy. The thermal scythe, which seemed suitable for the Gundam that was attacking his friend, was pulled back and about to slice off Heavyarms' head. 

"NO!!" Heero ignored his present battle and, reacting rather than thinking, began to fly towards his partner...

***

Zechs couldn't believe that Heero Yuy had just turned his back on him and flew towards Duo and that weird hair guy.

He took the opportunity to come up behind Wing Zero and slice his abdomen part off; but not before Duo's scythe sliced off Wing Zero's head, which had flown into the line of fire and stopped the blow intended for Heavyarms. 

Time stopped.


	3. Return to Base

**Chapter Three: Return To Base**

Just a few seconds after, Trowa was contacted by his fallen comrade on his commscreen. "Trowa, get the hell outta here.. Get to base..."

Trowa protested, "Are you nuts? I can't leave you here!"

Heero snarled, "Yes you can...and you will! Who'll tell High Command what happened, huh? You've got to get back to base! That is an order! Heavyarms, acknowledge!" 

The Gundam's computer responded, "Command acknowledged. Returning to base." 

Heero's image disappeared soon after as his Gundam lost the ability to transmit. Trowa looked out Heavyarms' view screen and saw Heero's Gundam...all three pieces of it.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!" 

Trowa raged and screamed and pounded the controls of his Gundam as the machine turned on its emergency boosters and flew to base. To no avail. Trowa was a lieutenant, while Heero was a commander; though the two never thought about rank, if Heero ordered the Gundams to retreat, Trowa couldn't do anything to override the command. Even if not overriding meant leaving his best friend and brother-in-arms behind...

As the orange and white Gundam left the battlefield, the two remaining Gundams looked at each other. They weren't in good shape. But at least they were whole, as opposed to the three pieces of mecha burning at their feet. 

****

Relena turned on her heel and again paced the length of the gleaming control room. The various technicians scattered throughout the room paid her no mind, as the young security expert had been imitating a caged tiger for nearly an hour now.

"Where are they?" Relena muttered under her breath as she began her 269th circuit of the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Noin sitting quietly at a console. Despite her apparent calmness, Relena knew that the young Italian lieutenant was deeply worried.

'Especially about oniisan, I bet,' snickered Relena to herself. Her momentary amusement slipped away as she remembered the events of a while back: Hilde, in a panic, had burst into base, jabbering about a life-and-death battle between their Gundams and two enemy units of equal power. The base had exploded into action, the flurry of activity ending with Hilde leading a reinforcement squad of Aries to where Duo and Zechs were roughing it up with two Rebel pilots.

Relena recalled the frantic look on Hilde's face and gulped. Something told her to fear the worst...

"They're here!" yelped a tech. "I mean, um, ma'ams..." Relena rushed to the screen, noting that Noin had jumped up and bolted for the technician's console simultaneously. 'So much for being cool-headed...'

The Aries squad trudged in through the hangar doors, escorting two rather beat-up Gundams. Beat up, but their pilots were still alive!

They were down in the hangars in the blink of an eye. Hilde leaped down from her Aries and stood beside Relena and Noin; they all watched anxiously. Relena chewed on her lower lip nervously as mechanics trundled staircases to the chests of the massive Gundams. The first mechanic climbed up and opened Deathscythe's door...and stuck out his arms just in time to catch Duo's half-conscious figure as it slumped forward. 

Hilde gave a little shriek and was up the stairs and cradling Duo's head before Relena could fully comprehend the situation. Relena looked again, and noticed Noin standing at the top of Tallgeese's staircase. Zechs stumbled out of his Gundam, only a bit more coherent than Duo. Gently, Noin slipped his arm across her shoulders and helped the blond colonel down.

Relena shifted on her feet, suddenly unsure as to where she should be. As Zechs and Duo reached the floor, Zechs looked around and ordered everyone except his 'team' out. As the hangar emptied, Relena drew closer to her brother, curious as to what Zechs wanted. 

Zechs lifted his head and caught his sister's eye with his own. "Relena, can you get a small room, totally shielded from surveillance..._all_ surveillance?" 

Relena nodded. "Sure. I'll rig one up in an hour. It'll be pretty crude at first, but by the time it's been long enough for those dorks in FedSec to catch on, I'll have it double-shielded and everything. Why do you need it?" Relena inquired.

Zechs sighed, and used one hand to push his bangs out of his sea blue eyes. He nodded to Duo, who pressed a button on a small gray box. The American boy gestured at his Gundam; the girls looked to it. They watched as one gigantic fist slowly loosened, revealing a boy cradled in its fingers.

The girls gasped. The boy's dark hair was matted down with something; sweat or, Relena suspected, blood. He wore a thin green tanktop, with reddish-brown streaks staining it. His face was pale and twisted in pain. Hilde's eyes widened in recognition. 

"That's the pilot of one of the other Gundams...the one Zechs was fighting!"

"WHAT?!" yelped Relena and Noin in unison. They turned to the two Gundam pilots, demanding answers. Zechs explained, "He is our link to the Rebels. If we can get him to talk, we have some serious firepower on our hands. And if we let Fed Intelligence take him away, sure as hell he'll either die from insufficient medical attention or escape."

"What's that got to do with us?" asked Relena, although she already knew the answer. Zechs knew that she knew and gave her an exasperated look. "_WE_ will have to take care of him. You can keep him a secret from FedSec, our very discreet doc can provide medical treatment, and as fellow Gundam pilots, me and Duo know him better...and therefore interrogate him better."

Relena had to admit his reasons made a lot of sense. Out of sheer habit, she was about to open her mouth and argue when something drew her attention.

Shinigami's leg, battered from the fight, groaned ominously and gave slightly to one side. The movement caused the whole of Shinigami to move, and the giant hand's fingers loosened. The boy in the Gundam's hand slid out and fell to the ground, a fifteen-foot drop. He landed on his belly, and bounced once on the steel floor. 

"Ouch. That's gotta hurt."

They all turned to stare incredulously at Duo, who looked supremely unconcerned about his wisecrack. 

"Duo..." Hilde began slowly. "The boy just fell over _fifteen_feet_ to the ground. He _bounced_ upon impact. The human body is not _supposed_ to bounce!" 

Duo shrugged. "Well, excuse me for not being very concerned about a guy who, just an hour or so ago, was attempting to slice me up like cheap bread!"

Nobody noticed the young Rebel soldier struggle to his feet, shaking his head. He brought a hand up to his temples, and touched the cloth of his bandanna. It was stiff with dried blood, and as he brought his hand away he saw that flakes of dark brown stained his fingertips. Still, his young body and mind had been trained and toughened so that he was able to regain consciousness even after all his injuries-one of the very few upsides to being brought up like he had been.

He noticed that the two OZ pilots, and three unfamiliar girls, were only some twenty yards away, but not paying attention to him. Their mistake.

Heero was no fool, and certainly no stranger to military strategy. He knew why he'd been brought here, and he knew he wanted to get out as soon as possible.

He was hurt, and moving his left leg sent jolts of pain up his spine, but he was still able to move fairly silently to where the small group was. He withdrew a sharp-edged dagger from its hidden sheath and held it in the knife-fighting grip he'd been taught-loose but firm, held away from himself in such a way he could strike from any angle or parry a blow easily. 

He slunk as close as he could, then suddenly leaped. He grabbed one of the girls-the one with the sandy blond hair in the ponytail-and pressed the knife's edge to her neck. The other people stared at him in shock and growing anger as he backed away warily, making sure his eyes were trained on them the whole time.

"Nobody move, or I'll kill her!" 

"Let her go!" Zechs roared, eye twitching. Tallgeese's pilot clenched his hands into fists and started for the two when a hand stopped him. 

"Hey!" Duo stepped forward. "Let me handle this." If this piece had a soundtrack, now would be the time for the melodramatic music to flare as Duo struck a pose. "You! Release yon damsel from thy wicked hands!" 

Zechs stared at Duo. "Stop acting like an idiot, Duo!"

Duo just flashed a 'don't-worry' smile as his foot jerked in an upward motion and made his shoe fly up to his waiting hand. 

"Let her go or else," said Duo in a menacing voice. 

"Or else what? You going to make me smell your socks? Now, that's scary," Heero said mockingly. 

Duo growled, "That's it! I'm fed up with you, you suicidal maniac! Take this!" With that, Duo threw his shoe at Heero.

Wing Zero's pilot smiled smugly as he deftly snatched Duo's shoe from the air, inches before his face. He held the shoe in his free hand and taunted, "Nice pitch. Jeez, my grandmother could throw better'n you." 'Because she was trained as a ninja since the age of five,' Heero added mentally. 

"You idiot!" Relena screamed at her brother's best friend. 

"Ow! Have mercy on our eardrums!" Duo reached in his pocket and took out a control box that looked very much like the remote control for a television. 

"At a time like this you're going to watch TV?!" Hilde shrieked at her boyfriend. 

"Watch and learn, boys and girls." He pressed a button on his 'remote control'. A short hiss was heard and Duo's shoe exploded right in the grasp of Relena's startled captor. 

The blast was small, so all Relena felt was a wave of heat near her right ear. It was also self-contained enough that Heero fell to the ground, unconscious.

Relena stumbled as Heero fell. Since his arms were still around her, when he fell, he took her with him. She ended up practically kneeling on the cold permacrete floor, the Rebel pilot's head on her shoulder. Hilde walked over and helped her up. 

Relena got to her feet shakily. Turning to Duo, she demanded, "What the _hell_ was that trick, Maxwell?!" 

Duo looked hurt. "Jeez, that's gratitude for ya. I save her life, and she's yelling at me!" he complained to Zechs in a wounded tone. 

Relena yelled, "An EXPLOSIVE went off three inches from my HEAD!" She took a deep breath to calm herself. It worked only a little. "I could have taken care of it MYSELF!"

Duo smirked. "Sure, Relena," he said condescendingly.

Relena fumed. Of course, all OZ personnel were trained in hand-to-hand combat, but Relena lagged far behind her teammates in that area. He didn't have to rub it IN!

She glanced at the rebel who had held her hostage. He'd seemed so dangerous when he was in a fighter's crouch, a knife gripped in his fist. But now...he looked so helpless there, lying on the ground; actually, he looked kinda cute with his messy hair and his... 

She bit down-HARD-on the inside of her cheek. 'What is _wrong_ with me? I've never been boy-crazy; why should I start now? It's probably an after-effect of all that fear and stuff when Zechs and Duo weren't here...' That firmly settled in her mind, she turned on her heel and started to go, to prepare that shielded room her older brother had requested.

After everyone but Duo and Zechs were gone, they got down to business. Duo gently kicked Heero's limp leg. "What're we goin' to do with him?" he asked as the rebel started groaning. 

"I don't know, what do you think?" Zechs looked at the sullen expression on Duo's face- as usual, the expression didn't last long. "Let's torture him! And then when he's had enough, and he's begging for mercy-" He smirked.

"We'll make him start giving information?" Zechs guessed.

"No... we torture him some more! Cool plan, huh?" 

"No, it'll kill him." 

"Oh, yeah." Duo scratched his head. "Aww, this isn't so fun anymore!" he complained.

Zechs smiled tolerantly. He knew that his friend wasn't really like that. He'd no more torture a prisoner than he'd get up on a table and start singing 'the Barney Theme Song'. 

"Come off it, Duo. We'll take care of him until his wounds heal-including the ones _you_ gave him with that exploding-shoe trick-and when we can, we'll interrogate him. In a _humane_ manner, not like those sadists in the Federation."

Duo nodded his head in acquiescence. "Hai, hai." The two slung Heero over their shoulders and started for the room Relena had prepared.

***

"Nice room," Duo said appreciatively. He dumped the boy he'd been carrying onto the white cot in the middle of the room. Relena, who was twisting some wires together in the innards of a dismantled control panel, didn't look up at the boys' entrance. 

Duo continued, "This jerk better appreciate the good treatment he's getting."

Zechs continued to appraise the room carefully. Everything met his approval, and he gave his sister a nod. She didn't answer the nod, but instead walked right out the door after she placed the control panel's cover back on.

"Probably didn't see me..." Zechs turned his attention to his rival on the field. Duo just grinned and asked, "Can we use a scalpel?" Zechs just chuckled at Duo's remark and answered with great knowledge and understanding, "No." 

A tall, blond haired woman came into the room. She was followed by a young man carrying a white medkit. 

"Dr. Po," greeted Zechs. "Colonel Marquise," she returned. "I came as soon as your sister called. This is my assistant and a medical student, Chang Wufei," she said, gesturing at the dark-haired young man behind her. 

The studious-looking boy gave a polite nod to the two pilots and began efficiently setting up the equipment Sally needed. Zechs conversed quietly with the OZ medical specialist while Duo annoyed Wufei by trying to take a look at his scalpels. 

Finally, just as Wufei seemed about ready to operate on Duo without anesthesia, Zechs turned from his conversation with the doctor and motioned to Duo. "We have to go for debriefing now, Doc. We will be back in an hour; we shall expect your report by then."

Sally nodded. Zechs turned on his heel and walked out the door. Duo whined as he was shoved out of the med room by a grinning Wufei.

"But I wanna see the scalpels!" Duo cried as the door slid closed.

****

Sally slid the door to the makeshift ward and stepped out. Wufei was still inside, tidying up the medical equipment. 

"Well, doc?" inquired Zechs. "What's the verdict?" 

"Well, he won't be feeling exactly great for the next few days. Or weeks. Or months... But he'll pull through. His skeletal structure is simply...I mean, he's in better shape than most Olympic athletes...what kind of training did he...?...I don't know how he does it...and his coninal archs..."

Zechs had begun to look lost after her third sentence. In desperation, he held up a hand to halt her medical report. "Please, so a dumb flyboy like me can understand."

Sally smiled at him apologetically. "Sorry, Colonel. Well, I think we can treat him sufficiently well. Some of his wounds look nasty, but none are infected...that's a good sign. He's got several fractures and a concussion, but nothing that won't set soon. I'd like to recommend placing him in an ICS- Induced Comatose State-to further facilitate his healing process. The only problem is that you won't be able to interrogate him till he wakes up. You'll also need to leave a watch on him, to see when he regains consciousness." 

Zechs waved his hand to indicate it was no problem. "Don't worry, doc. I wouldn't think of interrogating him until he regained full health anyway."

"Fine," Sally said, snapping into what Duo referred to as 'crisp-and-clean speech mode'. "I'll begin the treatment as soon as possible."

"Thank you, doctor."


	4. Prisoner of War

****

Chapter Four: Prisoner Of War 

__

'Rustle'

Relena looked up as the boy on the bed turned over on his side. When he made no further movement, she sighed and returned to her book.

As the only one in their little 'elite' group without anything to prevent her, Relena had been elected to the post of 'Enemy-Gundam-pilot-watcher'. Hilde, Duo and her brother had duties in the field. Noin had classes to teach. Relena could do all her work in the room and she still had had to fine-tune the security system.

But now, two weeks into the unknown boy's enforced nap, all her work was done, the security system was as good as it was going to get-she'd eat her hat if any of those idiots at Federation Security OR Intelligence even suspected-and there was really nothing else to do.

She really hoped a new assignment would come in soon; she'd even welcome debugging the old security system of some useless noble who'd cajoled a favor out of her superiors, a task she usually detested. This was the third day in a row she'd had nothing to do but come in here and stare at the sleeping boy's face. Not that it wasn't a _nice_ face to stare at...

She sighed again, more at the direction her thoughts were taking then in boredom. She cast her eyes around the room again, just in case she'd missed something the other thousand times she'd done that. Nothing out of the ordinary beckoned.

She fell asleep, but woke up in under half an hour. Hurriedly, she checked on the Gundam pilot's condition. Still the same... he'd shifted into a new position while she was asleep, accidentally kicking his blankets off him. She moved quietly to his bedside and tucked the thin sheets back into place around him.

She stood there a moment, watching him silently. He was dressed in a white tanktop and boxers, standard patient wardrobe for OZ. The bandanna he'd been wearing when he first arrived was on the night table next to him.

Spurred by a sudden idea, Relena picked it up and carefully tied it around his sleeping head. The bandanna made him look less...anonymous, less mechanical, somehow. It also served the added purpose of somewhat hiding the white gauze covering the burns Duo's shoe-bomb had given him.

That done, she returned to her seat. She drummed her fingers on the windowsill. She watched the clock's face. She watched the boy again.

"Oh, to hell with it!" she suddenly exploded. She stalked out of the room. She returned in a few minutes, a sleek gray laptop tucked under her arm. She set it up on the table, and logged onto the Internet...as her hacker alias.

"Time for some fun," she murmured to herself. Too bad if Zechs had strongly suggested she stop her 'games'. She was bored, and she was going to play!

****

Heero was dreaming. In dreams, you can relive things so far away you can't remember them in your conscious life. It's practically like time travel.

****

He was young...very young. His tiny body, barely three years old, was being cradled in his mother's arms. He rested his head, already sporting a messy mop of spikes, on her slender shoulder. She started humming a soft tune, a lullaby that she herself had composed for her little boy, and the crooning melody soothed his eyelids down.

The door to their living quarters opened. The little boy opened his cobalt eyes a crack just in time to see his father, smiling at his wife and son, come inside.

"Hello, Adian," his mother greeted the tall, twenty-five-year-old man. "How was work?"

"Fine, but utterly boring," answered Adian Lowe. "Sometimes I wish I hadn't been given a commander's commission in the Federation Army. Being an officer means you get to do _lots_ of paperwork. God help me if they want to give me a promotion." His eyes came to rest on his sleeping son. "How was AJ?"

"He cried all morning for you. Took me quite a while to get him to calm down. He really misses you, Adian."

Adian sighed. "What can I do? I wish I could spend more time with him...but being a commander, though less dangerous than my other job, sure takes up a lot of time."

"I know it's not your fault, sweetheart. I'm glad you gave up working for the Hierarchy. Just...you needn't prove yourself to them, you know. You are the best officer they have. Why should you be afraid to ask for a little time-off?"

Adian sighed again and ran a hand through his unruly hair, as resistant to combing as his son's was proving to be-a point of considerable exasperation to Kendra. "Maybe you're right, Kendra..." His face brightened. "But...what else did AJ do all day? I know you went to the Centre to do some work..."

"I brought him with me and left him in the day-care center. He played with those kids from OZ...Commander Une brought them over."

"Those orphans? The blond boy, his sister, and those two Church kids?" Adian asked, gray eyes thoughtful. "How did he get along with them?"

"Pretty well. He's a good kid. Although he and that blond boy got into a bit of a tussle over a toy truck..." She gazed fondly at the toddler dozing on her shoulder, then looked at her husband. "I was watching him play, and I saw you in him...he's getting more like you everyday..."

Adian smiled at her and walked closer, enfolding his family in a hug. "Yes, but I know he'll grow up to be better than me..."

"Why?" asked Kendra, snuggling into his embrace.

"Because half of him came from you," Adian whispered.

****

Heero came to slowly. It took a few minutes of blinking to make out more than a vague blur. His limbs felt oddly sluggish and heavy, as if he hadn't used them in ages.

The fact that he was a Federation-OZ, if you had to be specific-prisoner had not escaped his mind, and so he remained completely silent as he acclimated himself to his new surroundings. There was probably someone keeping a watch, but they hadn't sounded an alarm yet. He knew he was in no condition to make a break for it, and didn't try. That would come later.

Heero slowly propped himself up on his elbows, remaining absolutely quiet as he took stock. He was in a well-lit, compact room with white walls, floor and lighting. He rested on a hospital-cot with several large machines beeping or whirring quietly beside him.

And on the sofa on the other side of the room stretched a sandy-blond girl, totally intent on her computer. Heero watched her curiously. She looked like she knew what she was doing. Hey, wasn't she that girl he had tried to use as a hostage...?

Relena grinned as her program managed to further decode a document she'd...er, lifted...off a certain wealthy corporation's mainframe. She saved her work and prepared to log off. Purely by chance, she raised her head at that moment and locked eyes with Heero, propped up on his elbows and certainly awake.

Relena's eyes widened and she yelped in surprise. "Y...you're awake!" she sputtered, pointing at him. She bolted up from the sofa, never taking her eyes off him as she inched toward the intercom. 

"Hello? Ahhhh… Zechs, I think that you'd better come down here…"

****

Zechs and Duo were changing from their flight suits-Zechs's blue, Duo's black-into their normal red-and-gold OZ uniforms when the intercom in their bunkroom beeped. Duo picked it up.

"Hello? Ahhhh… Zechs, I think that you'd better come down here…" 

"Hey! I'm not Zechs! I'm his superior in intelligence, skill and especially looks, Duo Maxwell!"

"In your dreams, pal." Zechs grabbed the intercom from Duo's reluctant hands. "Hey Relena, what's up?" he asked, casual in tone.

Relena's anxiety showed in her tone. "He… he's awake, Zechs…"

There was no need for her to elaborate. "What? Okay, we're coming down right now. Stay put, okay?"

"Yeah, roger that," she responded, glancing warily in Heero's direction.

****

Heero watched the whole conversation with a curious, slightly smug expression. It just felt so good to have people trembling around you.

But enough about pleasure, what he was concerned about now was getting information. "Where are we?" the young Gundam pilot asked as he stretched his arms slightly, getting rid of the muscle fatigue...and testing the strength of the restraints.

The girl remained silent. 'Damn it, these stupid shackles are strong. It looks like she's not going to volunteer any information…' He looked at the girl again. "Hey, girl. What are these shackles made of?"

"Why should I tell you?" she replied, not taking her eyes off her computer.

"Like it's gonna be of any use to me, girl."

"Then why are you asking?"

"To see why I couldn't break it, girl."

"Because they're titanium alloy. The Jaws of Life themselves couldn't break them. And stop calling me 'girl'!" she said, exasperated.

"Why should I?" He paused, then added, "Girl."

"I have a name, you know. I don't go around calling you 'boy', Heero."

"So what is it?"

"Relena Marquise…oops." She winced. 

Heero smiled triumphantly. "Heh. Thanks for introducing yourself, Releee~na," he singsonged mockingly. "Marquise, huh? As in...Zechs Marquise? The Lightning Baron? Sooo…what would that make you? The Rain Baroness?"

"Shut up!" cried Relena. "You're our prisoner, remember? So be quiet or…or…"

Heero smirked. "Well, your voice is louder'n a howling wind. Maybe that should be your name. Nah…Rain fits you, I think. You're such a wet blanket!" he laughed.

"What a riot. I'm sure your rebel friends found you very amusing." Relena's voice was cold and rigid with barely contained fury.

"Hey everyone! It's me, the interrogator!" Duo Maxwell walked in along with Zechs Marquise. "Umm…" Both OZ pilots sweatdropped as they saw Relena glaring furiously at a smirking Heero, who acted as if he were in a teacher-less classroom rather than strapped to a bed in the stronghold of the enemy.

Relena spun around to face her brother and her friend, certain that if she looked at that…that…BOY any longer she would no longer be able to keep from trying to strangle him. "He's all yours, oniisan," she said. "I need to get something to drink."

She walked stiffly out of the room. 'I wish Duo really would use the scalpels on him!' Relena raged to herself.

****

Duo glanced at Heero, "You from the Federation?"

Zechs gritted out, "Duo, we already know the answer, he's from the Rebels. It would be ridiculous if he were from the Federation, next time think carefully before asking a question."

Duo thought for a minute, "Okay, I have it! Who developed your Gundams? Answer right now and you won't have to suffer…"

"Duo, we can just use truth serum, remember?"

"No, you can't," Heero interrupted their argument. Zechs and Duo regarded him half-questioningly. This was the first time they had heard him speak since that fight almost two weeks ago. Heero continued: "I have been trained so that chemical…er, inducers don't work on me."

Zechs beckoned to Duo. The two huddled together, whispering. "I don't think he's bluffing."

Duo protested, "But it's impossible to gain a resistance to ALL the serums!"

"Duo, there are only three out there."

"Still…shouldn't we at least try it out?"

"Oh, all right."

****

The first one they tried out was Edean. This thick, pinkish liquid tasted like strawberry cream. With sugar.

Heero nearly gagged himself insensate when they stuck it in his mouth. And it didn't work either, though Duo was delighted with the whole Heero-choking part.

****

The second was a brew called Celcis. It was introduced, not orally, but through IV's. It was tried two days after they tried Edean. (and after Heero awoke from his sugar-induced catatonia)

Zechs wasn't there, so Duo set it all up by himself…with Relena's help.

Okay, okay, let's give credit where credit is due: if Relena (who, much to her disgust, had again been elected official Heero-watcher) hadn't been there, he wouldn't have had a clue on what to do.

Anyway, to get back to the story (and to stop the Duo-bashing, though that's fun) they hooked it up, Heero watching apprehensively. It took two minutes for it to take effect. The effect being that Heero began laughing and smiling and generally acting like someone very buzzed. He called Duo 'Trowa' and seemed to think the two were best buddies. And he called Relena 'Dorothy' and began teasing her (this was the difference between how he normally talked) _good-naturedly_.

The two who were in there were alarmed and (in Relena's case) more than slightly disconcerted over how the drug affected Heero. Duo, who was no stranger to getting drunk, tried every remedy he knew to get rid of the boy's intoxication, but to no avail.

So it was that when Zechs came in nearly an hour later, he came in to find a wildly grinning Heero and his two junior officers looking sheepishly at him.

Ten minutes after Zechs's lecture/yelling session, Relena and Duo's ears were still ringing.

****

"Oww…" muttered Heero morosely. He would have put his head in his hands but he was bolted to the cot. "Owww…" he said again, this time louder. He looked down at the floor, a portion of his mind not occupied with the pain, agony, misery and suffering that wracked his body marveling at how it spun and dipped…

His head exploded as a massive soundwave ripped through his ears. He barely bit back a cry of pain. Slowly, feeling like he was resisting steel bands someone had placed around his neck, he turned to see who had tried to kill him.

Relena shut the door with a sharp click, balancing a steel tray on one hand. Relieved the tray of food hadn't fallen, she turned to the shackled prisoner.

"What are you glaring at me for?!" she demanded angrily, for, indeed, Heero was turning his very best 'I-will-kill-you' glare upon her. Heero winced at the sound of her voice, and his 'I-will-kill-you' turned to 'I-would-kill-you-but-I'm-in-too-much-agony' His cobalt eyes still looked angry, but now there was an expression of pain in them.

Relena caught the pain in his eyes, and her answering glare softened. It was her fault (Duo's too) that he was so badly hungover. Then she quickly squelched the guilt. 'Why should I feel guilty? He's our PRISONER! A P.O.W!! He should be happy that the worst done to him is making him have a hangover-admittedly, one worse than normal-but…AARGH!'

Heero was confused.

First, he had glared at that Marquise girl because her noisy entrance (actually, pointed out his logical side, her entrance hadn't actually been that noisy, it was just that being hungover honed his already-sharp senses to a painful degree) had increased the number of Aries units breakdancing in his skull. She had glared back, then-this was the confusing part-her expression had softened. Why? He didn't know. Then, just as quickly, her glare had returned. Again, for no reason Heero could readily discern.

'Girls,' Heero sighed to himself. "Could you not walk about so loudly?" he asked. "I have a headache…"

"Well ex-cuuuuuse me, your royal highness! I apologize most abjectly! Would his Lordship desire me to draw the curtains so the sunlight does not hurt his sensitive blue eyes?!" snapped Relena. She slammed down the tray of food, seething as he had the nerve to throw her a wan grin. "This is your lunch. You'll eat it or else!"

"I thought I was a royal highness."

"Shut up!"

*****

Relena was fuming-a state of mind she seemed to spend a great deal of time in, nowadays. "Stupid boy!" she said loudly, and punched her pillow. It made her feel a little better, so she did it again. And again. When little feathers began to float around her, she decided to stop.

She wasn't feeling that much better, so she looked around to see if there was anything else to take her mind off Mr Aggravating. Her gaze fell on her silvery laptop.

*****

Duo was walking through the corridors, happily munching on his Big Gundamac.

"That Wufei is a great cook!" he thought, somewhat smugly remembering how Sally forced Wufei to teach Duo how to cook. "Although he did glare at me the whole time. Oh well." He kept on walking till he saw a familiar figure standing beside the window.

Hilde was gazing out the window. She wasn't looking at anything in particular, except the empty blackness outside their base. She remembered Earth. It was anything but empty.

***** (Flashback)

"C'mon Hilde! Let's go to the construction site! I wanna see if there's really a giant pipe you can slide in there, like Zechs said," a 7-year-old Duo called out to his friend. "But Duo, it's so scary there… it's almost night-time…I don't think our officers will be very pleased…"

"It's okay Hilde! I'll protect you! I promise… Now, let's go!"

__

Somehow, though he was so reckless, I felt safe whenever I was with him.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!" Hilde screamed as the two Dobermans chased them.

Duo and Hilde ran as fast as they could, but their legs were short and could only take a small distance each step. "Duo, they're catching up!" she cried, frightened tears streaming down her face.

__

I was so scared, I didn't know what to do…

After all their efforts to escape, all hope was lost when they reached a dead end. "Duo, I don't want to hurt…"

She pleaded to God that they would come out safe and sound, certain that the big, slobbering animals would rip them to shreds.

"Don't worry! They won't hurt you!" Duo shouted, he grabbed a metal bar and held it defensively. His palm was sweaty, so he didn't have a good grip over it. OZ had been training him and Hilde for two years, so he was slightly more capable than an average child.

He swung it at the first dog. It connected with its jaw, but Duo's seven-year-old strength wasn't enough to knock it out. The dogs attacked and attacked, until Duo was covered with bite wounds. When one of the dogs tried to attack Hilde, he would block her and take the bite instead.

__

He protected me. He kept his promise.

*****(End Flashback)

Duo strolled up to Hilde and delivered a playful blow to the back of her head. Hilde broke off her reminiscing as her head rocked forward. "Hi Hilde!" he greeted her cheerfully, biting off a mouthful of burger.

Hilde seethed. She remembered how, after getting back to the base, the two kids had been scolded for their little adventure, but Duo took all the blame. She remembered how often she'd visited him when he'd been laid up in the infirmary for two weeks following his first MS battle when he was twelve (often bringing/dragging Relena along). She remembered how often he'd come to visit HER after she'd broken her arm after an MS she was piloting overheated and exploded. (because of a faulty coolant line; the technician in charge of that was able to resume duty after getting over two fractured legs and a multitude of bruises)

All these fond memories weren't enough to stop her from yelling, "Duo you moron!"

*****

"And a one, and a two, and a…I'm in!" crowed Relena. Softly, though, since she was again in Heero's hospital room, and had no desire to wake the boy up. He was sleeping off the effects of the Celcis truth serum.

'I just don't feel like dealing with the jerk,' Relena thought, lifting her head from her work in order to look at Heero, asleep in his hospital cot. She returned her gaze to her laptop's screen. She raised her hands, ready to resume typing…

As a child, Heero was subjected, not only to his father's brutal training sessions, but also to scientific 'experiments' a hundred times more brutal. They had, though, given him enhanced senses and strength, so his keen ears were able to pick up a word, loud to his sensitive hearing, though no one else could hear it.

"Duo you moron!"

'Ah, it's that Duo guy again. How could such a sensible girl get mixed up with that, that, idiot.' Heero's respect for Hilde stemmed from the fact that she was in no way as snobby, or as mean, or as loud, or any number of other, less delicate adjectives, as Miss Relena Marquise. Then again, no girl was.

*****

Hilde glared at the idiot in front of her. He was backing away, grinning uncertainly. Another shout echoed from the end of the corridor. Near the gate to the landing field, an angry Wufei Chang shook his fist at Duo. "Stop right there, Maxwell!"

Sally Po reappeared inside the base and yanked on her student's arm. "Wufei, our ship's arriving in two minutes! We have to hurry or we'll miss it!"

"But he stole my Gundamac! I want it back!"

"Stop acting like a baby, besides Duo probably gulped it down already!"

"Alright, woman, but…" he shook a fist at Duo. "We'll be back…"

"Of course we are, the class I'm going to lecture is only an hour long. And our patient hasn't recovered yet." Sally snapped irritatedly, and caught hold of Wufei's shirt sleeve. The two disappeared through the doors, Wufei's cries of "Let go of me, woman!" floating to the two sweatdropping OZ pilots.

Duo wiped his forehead, "Whew…" He turned around only to face Hilde yet again. His face fell again. "Uhhhhh…."

Hilde smacked him on the head. "I can't believe you stole something from the medic's apprentice! You pig!"

Duo protested, "He was teaching me how to cook! I had to try the food he cooked to see if it was worth it!"

Hilde fumed. She couldn't believe this guy, he really needed manners. Duo just stood there, arms folded and refusing eye contact with her. She sighed, "I guess you'll never change…" She turned around and walked away. "Hmph," Duo muttered as he walked the opposite direction

*****

"What are you smiling about, idiot?" Relena demanded, pounding her fist on the table. Heero grinned. "Aren't I allowed to smile? Besides, what's it to you… brat?"

"What did you call me!? What did you call me?!" yelled Relena. "I am not a brat! I can handle myself under any circumstance! Sure, you pilots are all experts of combat and all that stuff, but I am an expert on security and computers, so chew on that, tough guy!"

Heero smirked at her mockingly. "Wow… so when confronted by a gun, you can-what? Type yourself out of it?"

Relena glared at him. "For your information, I'm already a red belt in taekwondo, a blue belt in karate and a brown belt in Aikido! These hands are registered as weapons."

"Well, karate kid, I've mastered all those schools and a lot more," Heero replied smugly. "And, o mistress of hackerdom, I bet my kung-fu could beat yours anytime!" Relena thought he was challenging her to a martial arts match, but then realized he was referring to hacking.

(AN: We aren't hackers ourselves, so any part of this fic concerning hacking will be very uninformed. Sorry for people who crave reality in the fic…most of the hacker knowledge will come from movies. ^^;;)

"What? A braindead flyboy like you who only thinks of things going 'kaboom', food, bright pointy things and on occasion the deeper meaning of spaghetti?"

"You forgot to mention pretty girls," Heero noted. He eyed her up and down, then smirked. "Know any?"

"Shut up! I'd be surprised if you knew how to boot up a PC," Relena said. Stung, Heero raised himself on his elbows (one of the few movements he was still able to do) and glared at the sandy-haired girl calmly typing away on her laptop. "You don't know what you're talking about, little girl."

What Relena's biting rejoinder to this would have been, we'll never know. At that moment, Zechs walked in, to see how far away Heero was from recovery. Heero leaned back into the cot and glared at the cool, poised Colonel.

Zechs looked over the enemy pilot, making Heero feel like a colt under the scrutiny of an interested buyer-a feeling Heero definitely didn't care for. He glared at Zechs, who didn't notice and just nodded in approval of how Heero was healing.

He was about to leave, when he noticed Relena eagerly concentrating on her laptop. Zechs frowned. She only got that gleeful smile on her face when…

He peered over the shoulder apprehensively. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw a jumble of incomprehensible numbers and letters scrolling down the laptop's screen in columns of bright green characters. It was incomprehensible, yes, but after being Relena's brother for sixteen years, Zechs had learned to recognize code when he saw it.

"Relena!" he yelled. Relena shuddered as his voice literally shook the room.

"Whoa… and I thought my superiors were loud," Heero commented, watching the sibling argument with interest. "Must be the family angle. Am I glad I have no problems of that sort…."

"You know that sort of thing is illegal! Worse, you are an officer in the OZ corps! Imagine the scandal…" Zechs lamented, falling into a slightly over-exaggerated pose of sorrow.

Relena scowled and whapped her brother on the head. "Since when did we care what others thought of us? Besides, I won't ever be caught."

"Aaargh! You know what I mean, it's not just civilian opinion, it's morale in the troops, it's the reputation of OZ…"

"The troops wouldn't mind if I were a hacker, some of them ARE hackers!" Relena cried.

"Look, Brann," Zechs said, using his sister's handle half-amusedly, half-angrily, "I…" The tall, blond teenager was interrupted by the sound of someone making a sound of fervent disbelief. Both Marquises turned their eyes to where Heero was staring at them with wide eyes.

"Bra…Bra…Brann?" he cried in shock.

* * *

Author's Note: Whoo! It's out, the revised version of chapter four. I'm back from my extended stay in the States-even got to experience Thanksgiving. Well, here you got to see Heero as a kid-and realize that his dad wasn't a competitor for Gendo in Worst-Dad-EVER contest…at least not at first. Ideas for how this story could go extremely appreciated. 


	5. Breaking the Barrier

****

Chapter Five: Breaking The Barrier

To all appearances, the room was uninhabited. The computer on top of the desk lay lifeless and blank-it had been many days since its owner had turned it on. The bunkbeds against one wall were identically unrumpled and smooth, unused-looking, despite the fact that a boy did lie on the lower one. He lay completely still and unmoving, the way he placed his body on the mattress so unrelaxed that he didn't leave a wrinkle on the bedcover.

Trowa glared at the shadowed wall, forest-green eyes narrow. Of course the small bunkroom was empty and quiet-only one of its occupants was there. And it was all_his_fault_.

Now, though, he was going to take steps to atone for that. He rolled off the bed and headed out the door.

Ten minutes later, he was seated in a large conference room, shielded from surveillance and soundproof. It was dark, because of both the color of the walls and the lack of light, but he could still see the figure seated at one end.

"Do you have the plans?" he asked brusquely. It was practically the only way to deal efficiently with Quatre Raberba Winner, the Rebellion's top information source. The young blond rose to his feet and, wordlessly, laid a rolled-up blueprint on the desk. "The coordinates are on this data wafer," Quatre said. Trowa looked up at Quatre's face as he accepted the small computer disc. He found himself wondering what color Quatre's eyes were-that was a question no one he knew could answer, as no one had ever seen the young CEO without his dark, opaque shades. 

Quatre's conglomerate, the Winner Group, received a lot of military contracts-meaning Quatre had quite a lot of information at his fingertips, and the chance to gain more. He had contacts all over the place. And he placed them all at the hands of the Colonies. Trowa didn't know the story behind that loyalty-only the High Command did-but Quatre's information was accurate, and Quatre was never caught. That was all Trowa cared about. It was Quatre who had told him Heero was still alive, and being held prisoner. And now, it was Quatre who would tell him how to get Heero back.

'Just you wait, Heero. I'm coming to get you back.'

******

"Br…Brann?!" 

Heero collapsed back onto his cot, cobalt eyes regarding the two Marquise siblings with shock. 

"That's my online handle," Relena said, watching him warily. "What's it to you?" 

Zechs was watching Heero with a more suspicious gaze. That Rebel kid had recognized that name. 

As if Heero felt Zechs' eyes on him, Heero rolled over and made his face look sleepy and unconcerned. He closed his eyes, commenting off-handedly, "So you do know how to surf. Huh. What's it mean?"

He rolled over, hiding his face from Zechs' suspicious eyes. "As if you care," Relena replied, "Brann means…"

'Ice,' Heero mouthed the word into his pillow as Relena said it. 

* * *

Author's notes: So now you've met the whole complement of Gundam boys and some of the other characters too. Can you guess where the others are going to show up? Remember, this is AU.

Someone commented it was like reading a story about totally different people who just happen to have the same names. I guess the characters are OOC, but you'll see them slipping IC later on.

Sorry it was so short, but I hope you enjoyed nevertheless. Feedback would greatly help this writer's block I've found myself in, so... Please do! Chapter six is half-done, expect it in two days. Peygan, I mean it this time! Really! 


	6. Loyalty

Heero Yuy stretched his arms over his head. After two weeks of being strapped to a bed, this new freedom of unshackled arms was well and truly appreciated. Of course…Heero turned his head to see the flickering bubble-aura around his bed. 

"Don't get any ideas about escaping, Yuy," Zechs had warned. "One step beyond this area, and you'll be hit with a thousand volts of electricity." Heero wondered where they had been able to obtain an electric field generator small enough to set up in a room. (he would later find out that Relena had developed it to help with her security plans-not as a part of it, but to keep her brother and Duo from disturbing her when she was trying to concentrate) But it wasn't so much the electric field that kept him than the fact that, trying to make up for leaving his arms free, they had piled restraint upon restraint upon his legs. From the knees down, his body was a solid mass of metal cuffs and constraints.

Added to these new implements was a bedtray, directly over Heero's lap (no longer was he lying down, but half sitting up against the headboard), on which were several sheets of paper, a brand-new rubber, and two pencils with their tips newly sharpened.

The interrogation had begun.

As Heero looked blankly in the general direction of the papers, he remembered how the Colonel of OZ had talked to him earlier. 

Zechs had come in early that morning, and supervised the moving and the releasing and tightening of restraints. Duo had released the arm cuffs and clapped on the new leg restraints, while Noin and Hilde kept their sidearms pointed directly at the young Rebel and Relena set up the electric field in the background. 

Zechs had told Heero he wanted him to draw a map of the main rebel base, along with the coordinates. He must have known that Heero had been trained to hold blueprint-quality maps in his head and to transfer them to paper. He also must have known that Heero's reply to that would have been along the lines of blistering invective, because before Heero could start dipping into his extensive (and multilingual) collection of profanity, Zechs had smoothly cut him off.

"Because if you don't, you know, that means OZ is a complete failure as far as interrogating a captured enemy is concerned." He shook his head in mock-dismay. "We'd have to turn you over to the Federation. I don't think you'd want that. Because after they got the information from you-and you know they can -well. Those Federation soldiers are quite bloodthirsty. I honestly believe some of them are insane. They'd _burn_ your Colonies to the ground, with no regard to women and children, no thought of taking prisoner-unlike, oh, say, OZ." On that chilling note, Zechs had left Heero alone, alone with the silence and his thoughts.

Heero was loyal to the Colonies, in spite of-or more likely, _because_-his father being a general in the Federation. He'd have rather died than betray them. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option here. He picked up a pencil, wondering if he could use its point to stab himself to death, before realizing what a ludicrous idea that was. He looked at the pencil again, twirling it around his fingers. 

If he drew the map, the Rebel base would fall. His compatriots, his superiors, the pilots who good-naturedly jossed him about his new Gundam and the mechanics who kept the Colonies' arsenal in good condition, brave, if not always well-mannered, men and women-they'd all become prisoners of war, subject to jail sentences and court-martials. 

If he didn't, they could all die a horrible, fiery death. 

And there was another reason, one that the darkest, most secret part of him shuddered at. He was ashamed that it should influence his thinking, but it was there, and no matter how he tried to forget, it was always tickling at the edge of his consciousness, or popping up in the middle of his thoughts. 

If they gave him to the Federation…he'd have to face his father again.

He took a deep breath, and looked around the room in the hopes of finding something to take his mind away from that possibility. It was empty except for him-not even his usual guard, Relena Marquise, was there. He wondered what had happened that had necessitated the sudden calling away of all those OZ officers. 

Relena…Heero ran a hand through his hair, and gave a small sigh. Who the heck would have guessed that Brann was Relena? Of course, now that he looked back, the way Brann 'spoke' and the way Relena spoke, the way Brann moved and Relena (when she was moving) moved had a number of similarities…though of course Relena's speech was much more hostile than Brann's. 

He thought back to that night, more than half a year past, that he had first met Brann…

*****

When the two boys entered their room for the first time in five weeks, after a series of consecutive missions, they moved with the half-springy confidence of one who is assured of a good rest after a job well done. 

Trowa threw his flight jacket and his green helmet onto his bunkbed, and darted off into the refresher unit. Heero set his things down more sedately, but more absent-mindedly; the dark-haired boy was intent on a box he held in between his hands. He sank into the only chair of the small room, still reading the back. He opened the multi-colored package, and, withdrawing a thick manual, settled down to read.

By the time Trowa emerged from his shower, fully dressed and looking much more approachable, he was intent on the second chapter. He looked up, slightly startled, when Trowa tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey Heero, your turn."

"Huh? Oh yeah." He laid the manual down on the table and walked into the 'fresher unit, grabbing some clothes out of his footlocker as he did so. As the sounds of running water began to fill the room, Trowa picked up the manual. 

"Talairn?" he murmured as he leafed through the booklet. He shrugged, placed it back down, and began combing his hair carefully. 

"Hey Heero," he said, as his partner emerged from the 'fresher pulling a sleeveless black shirt over his head, "Want to hit the L1 Megaplex? A bunch of us are heading over." By 'us', Trowa meant the others like them, the best young intelligence assets and soldiers the Rebellion could offer, the best-of-the-best-of-the-best-SIR! mavericks who came up with the most daring plans and executed the most suicidal missions-a group of which Trowa, Dorothy and Heero were the clearly acknowledged leaders.

"Ah, no thanks, Trowa," Heero replied as he finished tugging his shirt on. "I want to try out this new…ah….software that I picked up during that raid on…"

"Let me guess. When we were at that last mission, you didn't see why you couldn't destroy communication satellites _and_ pick up the latest copy of the company's PC games at the same time, ne?" Trowa said dryly. He tossed the box over to his partner, who smirked in admission. 

"Well, they have been raving about it for a long time and I got curious…"

"Just don't get caught," Trowa said. "Make sure no one can trace you when you go online."

Heero's face took on an offended expression-and Trowa knew that it was only half-joking. Heero was very proud of his computer skills. It was a running joke about how he took care of his laptop "better than me mom took care o' me," according to one wag. 

"Never mind. Forget I said anything," Trowa said, rolling his eyes. "See you later."

"Bye," Heero mumbled absently, already getting his computer set up. Trowa sighed, shrugged as if to say _'Nothing I can do,_' and left. 

Heero barely noticed as he slipped the MD (what? In AC 195 you think they're still using CDs?) into the slot in front of the CPU. As the computer whirred past the installation process, he continued to read the manual. It was one of that rare breed that is actually fun to read, so he looked up, finished, to notice that his Talairn game had finished installing five minutes ago.

He immediately logged onto the Net, and registered himself. When the log-on screen showed, Heero grinned slightly and withdrew a VR helmet from the bottom of the desk that held all of his electronic paraphernalia (and there was a lot). He plugged it into the PC and dove into the Talairn world.

He started off in a large, sun-dappled forest glade. In the distance, he could see several small buildings, with signs proclaiming 'General Store', 'Blacksmith', 'Mage Guild' and the like. From the manual he knew that these were the places new players went to equip themselves for the game. He could see other players wandering around, some heading purposefully for the buildings, the others just taking in the newness of this VR world.

He looked down at himself. Heero had enough expertise with computers to build himself his own 'jacket', as they called the appearance of a player, instead of taking one of the prepackaged jackets the game offered. He had chosen to be a half-elf ranger, with fighter proficiency. Instead of the usual green wear the game provided those who chose the same trade, Heero had designed an outfit of loose dark-colored trousers, belted by a jade-green sash with silver runes running down its length, an open-sided black tunic and footwear that closely resembled modern hiking boots. More than that, Heero had redesigned his own physical appearance. His hair, still in the tousled mess it was in real-time, was now a lambent silver that gleamed and glistened like liquid metal. It stood out even more against his skin, which was a deep color like polished mahogany. His eyes were slit-pupiled silver, like the color of his hair. He had even added a long tail which was now swishing behind him.

Jeez, it was like he was a kid again, playing dress-up in Halloween. Not, he thought grimly, that he had ever had time to celebrate Halloween as a child… He looked around, and saw that several players would stop and gawk a moment at his unconventional appearance. He laughed to himself, amusement chasing away the grim memories of before.

He started to walk towards the blacksmith's, when he saw a figure that caught his eye. Like him, whoever was playing had programmed it so that they had their own unique appearance; it was a female mage, dressed in a snowy white dress that dared more than the usual. It left a great deal of her limbs bare, being sleeveless and high-cut, much to the appreciation of several ogling males. A cascade of long, fiery-red hair fell all the way to the small of her back, held from disarray by a circlet that seemed to be cut entirely out of a single ice-clear diamond. She had clear, fair skin with a slight golden tan, the type pop stars spend thousands of dollars on lotion and sunlamps and trips to the Bahamas to obtain. Her facial lines showed definite Roman influences, as if she'd modeled it after some ivory statue of a patrician maiden. At the corner of her deep gray eyes were two triangular marks, colored a deep cobalt-blue. A white cloak, fastened to her shoulder by a brooch made of gold and crystal, completed her appearance. 

She was talking to another player, a person who had chosen the appearance of a paladin. Heero thought about walking over to introduce himself, shrugged, and decided to just walk on.

****

Relena turned and glared at yet another player who was ogling her. It wasn't her real body, true, but it still annoyed her nonetheless. Maybe she should have made her jacket a little more hag-like…but no. It had been too much fun building it, letting herself be a beauty she couldn't be in real-time.

The guy she'd glared at, an otherwise unremarkable fighter, hurriedly looked away-perhaps encouraged by the fact that the crystal-topped staff she had bought was sparking as miniature lightning bolts played around its length. 

As he scurried away fearfully, Relena let the lightning die down, and sighed. She was here less for the battles (though, she had to admit, she was looking forward to that) than for the chance to walk around and talk with people. As an officer of OZ's elite corps, her real life supplied enough excitement that she didn't need to get it here. But it did mean that just once in a while she wanted to talk with people who hadn't been brought up to be soldiers-people who did go to Talairn for adventure that never popped up in their lives, people to whom the war was a story, was history taking place before their eyes-not a living breathing entity you had to fight, not a reality you were right smack-dab in the middle of. 

She had initiated conversation with several newbies like her, but soon found pressing reasons to break them off.

'Is _everyone_ here a brainless git?' She knew it was unfair; people here were too busy acclimating themselves to the new environment to be good company; but she still found herself extremely frustrated with them all.

'Maybe they'll be more intelligent farther out in the game,' she sighed, and headed into the forest. 

****

Heero exited the Blacksmith's, feeling much better with new weapons on his person. He'd bought himself a longbow that was now slung over his shoulder, a quiver of arrows that was magicked to never run out, an undecorated bastard sword on his hip in a plain leather scabbard, and a dagger for his boot. Every weapon was enchanted in some way or the other. He'd had the money for that because unlike most other newbies, he hadn't spent much at all in the way of armor-he'd only bought himself a pair of bracers. 

He'd already been to the apothecary's, where he'd bought a few vials of Healing Potion. Feeling himself suitably equipped, he walked into the shadow of the towering forest behemoths that ringed the clearing. 

He had walked enough to get a respectable distance from the clearing when he heard it-the hiss and crackle of lightning magic. He darted off in the direction of the sounds. As he slipped through the forest growth, he saw that white-garbed mage he'd noticed earlier in the glade. She held her staff in front of her, and was hurling lightning bolts and spear-like icicles like there was no tomorrow.

He came nearer, and saw why. In front of her was a huge scaled monster, something out of legends and nightmares. If the situation hadn't been so serious, Heero was reasonably sure that the elegance and majesty of the draconian form would have been worth admiring, but now was not the time. Whenever one of the mage's magic attacks reached the dragon, it opened a huge black-bleeding wound that unfortunately sealed shut in a few seconds.

Heero said a string of words that the game automatically censored out. He'd been one of the few players who'd taken the time to read the list of monsters in the booklet, and he knew what it was. That was a stardrake, a dragon of the sky-race, resistant to physical attacks up to l.5 and auto-healing against magic attacks up to l.4.

The problem was, they were both l.2.

Still, he ran forward to stand at the mage's side, nocking an arrow as he did so. She gave him a grateful glance, but almost immediately returned to spellcasting. Firebolts and arrows sang through the air, crashing against the dragon's black hide-to no avail. 

They continued to back away, but the dragon kept getting nearer. Then, by chance, it happened. One of the mage's icicles hit the dragon, opening another black wound. But before it closed, one of Heero's arrows sailed _into_ the wound.

For the first time, the stardrake opened its mouth to roar in pain. Heero and the red-haired mage exchanged startled glances. Then both sets of eyes narrowed in cooperative glee. From then on, they began coordinating their attacks-the mage would send a bolt of fire, ice or lightning sizzling through the air, and there would be a single arrow flying directly behind, to lodge in whatever wound the magic attack would open. In a few minutes, the stardrake resembled a pincushion, so peppered was it with arrows. 

It was weaving all over the forest, crashing into trees, woozy from the blood loss.   
The numbers of trees it knocked against set the air resounding with the noise of their falls and the ground vibrating as if an earthquake had struck. Heero set his bow down, praying that the dragon wouldn't crush it underfoot, and unsheathed his sword. He gripped the hilt firmly in both hands, and yelled a single word to the mage. 

"Fire!"

The mage understood; she stepped back and began murmuring a string of words as Heero dashed forward. A few leaps from tree branch to tree branch brought him on level with the stardrake's face, just as the blade of the bastard sword became surrounded by an aura of white-hot balefire. He crouched, mentally cursed whoever had programmed smell into the game as a wash of hot, acrid dragonbreath flew into his face, and drove the blazing sword into the stardrake's great yellow eye. 

With a shriek of pain that would probably send all the forest wildlife into seclusion for a week, the stardrake fell heavily onto the ground. Heero leapt down and retrieved his sword from the death-glazed eye. He looked at the thick yellow slime and black blood all over it and grimaced. He could take gore with the best of them but only when they were the proper colors. And _no_ _slime_! He absolutely _hated_ slime.

He wiped the sword clean as best he could on some grass. As he straightened up, he noticed the sound of applause rolling through the forest, and looked around, surprised, to see a whole crowd of players ringed around the battlefield, clapping. He ducked his head and scowled, not liking to be the center of attention. It was obvious the mage had less of a problem as she walked over to his side, smiling and waving at the others. 

A single person approached them. The badge on his chest, emblazoned with a basilisk curled around a stylized letter T, proclaimed him as one of the employees of Talairn. It was the job of this man and other sysops (the game was so huge it needed more than one…more than a hundred, as a matter of fact) to make sure the game was running correctly, that players obeyed the rules, etc. They hardly displayed their badges, liking to keep a low profile, so when they did show them, most players took notice. 

"Nice work," the man complimented the two of them. He nudged the dead stardrake with his foot. "There must be a bug in the system…these suckers aren't supposed to show up until the Valley of the Lightning. But you two managed to take him down nonetheless, I see." He smiled at them, and vanished, along with the body of the fallen dragon. 

Later on, when they had managed to escape from all the curious newbies who wanted to know how they had gotten powerful enough to take down a l.5 monster, the mage said, "You know, that was a nice bit of teamwork we did there. What say we partner off?"

Heero shrugged. "Why not? It would probably be useful to have someone who can do magic nearby."

"Cool. Oh, by the way, my handle's Brann," she said, sticking her hand out. 

"I'm Tenka," Heero replied, shaking her hand.

****

And so began their habit of gaming together. With his lifestyle, Heero's gaming schedule could hardly be called steady; he'd go for a month without touching his computer, then spend the better part of three days online. Luckily enough, Brann's schedule was similarly staggered, so it was a rare gaming session that they didn't have together.

As they wandered over the virtual world of Talairn, they talked. Not only about the game, as most players did, but also about the world outside. Not much on details; Heero never had to offer what he did or where he lived, nor did he learn the same about her-but about what she liked, what she didn't and what she wished, he learned. It was amazing to him how someone with such a different bringing-up to him, one not dedicated solely to war, could have so much in common with him. 

****

The last time he had been in Talairn with Brann, they had been riding wyverns towards the city of Ral'asha. There had been a battle with a wild blue dragon, which they defeated but lost their wyvern mounts in doing so. They'd had to walk.

As they walked, they discussed a recent battle in Talairn that was a hot topic among the players. It involved three parties-the country of Shea, led by a player called Red Wean who had gained kingship by overthrowing the previous ruler; the Eshk Empire, who invaded; and Shaan. Shaan was supposedly the best friend of Red Wean, some people said even in real-time. However, real-time or VR, Shaan was certainly not friends with Red Wean anymore. He had sold the battleplans of Shea to the Eshk Empire-some parts of it he had planned himself-along with the plans to counter it. 

Heero had been particularly vehement in his denouncement of Shaan. Brann, who had been much more philosophical about the whole thing, had laughed at him. 

"Tenka, it's a lot less heinous than you're making it out to be. Just because you've got enough loyalty in you to put Fido to shame isn't any reason to hold others to the same standard. I hear the gamepoints they were offering Shaan were enough for him to win his own kingdom. So while what he did was bad, he doesn't deserve to be hung-and-quartered, o advocate of loyalty!"

****

'Advocate of loyalty…' Heero sighed. He looked at his fist and noticed he still had the pencil gripped tightly. He looked at the paper and started in surprise. If he hadn't been practically bolted to the bed, he might have jumped. 

Somehow, during his trip down memory lane, his hand, apparently apropos of nothing, had taken the pencil and drawn.

****

A few hours later, Heero, who had been asleep, was awakened by the sound of the door sliding open. He blinked, resisting the urge to rub his eyes, as Relena, Duo and Zechs stepped through. 

Zechs smiled as he saw the used pencils and eraser lying on the bedtray. He strode over with long, eager steps, picked up the sheet of paper…and began yelling. "What the hell is this?!"

Surprised, Duo and Relena hurried over. Relena jumped up and plucked the paper from her brother's grasp as Duo hooked his colonel under the arms, trying to restrain him as he practically lunged at Heero.

"What do you think this is? Art class? That's not a map, that's a…"

"…a stardrake," Relena interrupted quietly. She stared at the paper. The long sweep of neck as the huge horned head angled for a better view, the gleaming obsidian claws, leathery wings folded in close to the massive, dark-shaded body-there was no mistaking it. "I've seen it in Talairn."

"That kooky game of yours?" Duo asked, only to grin shamelessly as Relena glared at him. Relena stepped forward and looked squarely at Heero. "You play in Talairn?"

Heero shrugged. "I dropped in once or twice-on my friend's account. Found a picture on the JPEG archive of some webpage."

"Oh," Relena said softly. For a moment, she had wondered if…but she had dismissed the possibility before Heero spoke the words that made it sure. 

Ignoring all of this, Zechs wrenched himself free of Duo. He glared at Heero. "Fine, be that way, Rebel. We'll just give you to the Federation. I wish them better luck. And conveniently, a Federation official is dropping by in three days on an inspection tour."

He whirled around sharply on his heel and beckoned to his two subordinates. As the three of them left the room, Zechs called over his shoulder. "We'll just let General Lowe take you along after he visits."

If any of them had stayed in the room, they would have noticed how Heero turned absolutely white at the words. 

AN: Ha ha! I'm done, I'm done! Many thanks to Peygan and Axisor for their encouragement. It's been, like, six months since I turned out a new chapter of Alternatives, I think. Whoo-hoo! =D I can't believe it's finished. Sometimes it seemed like it would never be. 

Inspiration for the gameworld of Talairn taken from _Sarxos_ (Tom Clancy) _Diablo_ (Blizzard) and _Forgotten Realms_ (TSR) I'm a fantasy nut, so that's why I wrote so much on that part. (grin)

Belated Merry Christmas and early Happy New Year! 


End file.
